On the first day higher education salaries became public, many at the University of Utah trekked to the library to pore over a list of earnings kept chained to the reserve desk.
"Too many, unfortunately," said Patrick Lindsay, a student who was bustling at work behind the reserve desk Monday. Lindsay guessed most of those who studied the salaries were university faculty.Two copies of a 101-page report prepared by U. administrators are available at the Marriott Library. One is chained to the reserve desk, and one can be checked out for up to an hour.
Both were in heavy demand Monday - the day a new law requiring the release of higher education salaries took effect. The U. revealed only state-appropriated earnings, which meant only about 3,800 out of 13,000 salaries were listed.
Lindsay himself had not peeked at the list yet. "I'd rather not know," the junior majoring in biology said. "There's a professor in there who I don't appreciate, and I don't want to know if he makes an exorbitant salary."
One member of the library staff, who asked to remain unnamed, made two trips to the reserve desk Monday to find out what other employees were making. The staffer was stunned to learn Library Director Roger Hanson was paid nearly $85,000.
"We've been hearing for years how low the salaries are . . . What I'm seeing is that salaries are a lot higher than I've been led to believe in the past," the staffer said.
"This is amazing to me. Look at this," the staffer said, pointing to the administrators' salaries and then at a group of library employees who make about $13,000 annually. "I find this very demoralizing, frankly."
Hanson said before coming to the U. 22 years ago, he worked at universities in North Dakota and Minnesota, where campus salaries were public. "It's no big deal," he said of Monday's disclosure.
Hanson said he couldn't predict the library staff's reaction to seeing the salaries earned by the administration and other employees. "I just don't know," he said.
Others on campus, like Robert Mayer, chairman of the Department of Family and Consumer Studies, are already being confronted with the effects of salary disclosure on employee morale.
"One reaction I heard that I hadn't really counted on was that some people whose salaries are fairly low and who are productive members of the faculty have been asking me, `Should I feel embarrassed by how low my salary is?' "Obviously, people at the top might feel embarrassed that their salaries are so high. That reaction you might expect," Mayer said. Faculty in his department want to know why their salaries are low.
"(They've said) `I feel like I'm a good citizen, but the things that you do that are internal to the U. aren't going to be rewarded - teaching, not research and bringing in research grants.' It makes people feel other things might be a little devalued."
Full-time professors in the Family and Consumer Studies department in the College of Social and Behavioral Science earn between $28,880 and $46,474 on nine-month contracts. Mayer makes $58,315 as chairman on a 10-month contract.
In the College of Business, where a nine-month contract is worth as much as $103,000, a group of professors said salaries are set by the national academic job market.
"It's not a reflection of the quality of work, and it's a mistake to think of it that way, for us or them," finance professor Steven Manaster said. "We shouldn't get a big head because we're better paid." Manaster earns $98,400.
Not everyone on the U. campus was talking about salary disclosure on Monday. Asked what he'd heard about the issue, physics professor Daniel Mattis said, "Nothing."
The same was true at Utah Valley State College. Nancy M. Smith, director of Institutional Research and Planning, said there wasn't a great deal of interest shown in the release of salary information Monday.
"We actually were prepared for the worst and it's really been quiet," said Smith. "We've not had anybody come in or ask, just one call from another institution wanting our information - no individuals."
At Utah State University, most professors believe salary disclosure will mean little to the general public.
"The public won't understand what they're reading," said Ray Lynn, a USU biology professor. "It (salary disclosure) is not as big a deal as some people are making it out to be."
Lynn said the public may get a jaded view of professor earnings, because income from federal grants and other non-state-appropriated sources isn't being revealed.
"It will seem like research people make a lot less than those who teach, when just the opposite is true," Lynn said.